Instant win lotteries, contests and promotions have been in use for over 30 years. The most ubiquitous in present usage, being the “scratch and win” card. This card consists of a printed cardstock material, where the hidden message is concealed by a layer of removable latex ink. The user scratches the removable layer with a coin or fingernail exposing the underlying message.
The scratch and win cards have in-use limitations of requiring a solid surface to place the card on to scratch off the latex, as well as the undesirable residue left under fingernails or on counter tops by scratching. Due to the inherently frangible property of the latex layer, it is also vulnerable to unanticipated abrasive removal by handling, movement in a clothing pocket or in mail system when applied to a postcard. In addition these cards are susceptible to being compromised by lightly scratching with a pin or other methods to reveal identification of the prize message below. Due to the thin and less than total opacity of the latex layer, the cards are often necessarily laminated with metallic foil to avoid the hidden message being visible under a strong light, adding an extra cost and complexity to the product.
Flexible magnetic sheeting has been in use for over 50 years to produce advertising specialty items commonly referred to as “refrigerator magnets. These are used in both home and business environments and provide a long-lasting, effective, advertising medium when stuck to a metal surface, such as a refrigerator door, school locker, filing cabinet and the like.
Traditionally, the magnetic sheeting has been manufactured as a thin, calendared sheet of rubber or plastic containing strontium ferrite powder. The magnetization has normally been accomplished at the time of manufacture and consists of imparting a multi-pole array to provide a coercive (magnetic) force primarily to one side of the sheet. This magnetic material is sold in rolls or master sheets to advertising specialty converters who print them with an advertising message and then die cut into shapes for the advertiser. Printing was originally done by silk screening onto a vinyl surfaced sheet bonded to the magnetic polymer material. A subsequent process that became more popular was offset process printing onto a separate paper sheet and bonding the printed paper sheet to the magnetic sheet. This has been replaced to a large extent now by inkjet and digital printing due to the superior economy of digital printing for shorter production runs and the high quality now associated with digital printing. The printed paper has often been laminated with a clear thin polymer film or UV light-cured clear polymer coating for appearance and smudge resistance prior to bonding to the magnetic sheet. The traditional thickness of flexible magnetic sheeting is 0.3 mm to 0.75 mm thick. After printing the sheet is then die cut, into many smaller pieces from a size of 5 cm×5 cm upwards, in conventional or decorative shapes.
These magnets often contain advertising messages, and/or may be made in the shape and printed image of a souvenir or collectible item of interest to the end-user. In use they also are capable of holding up sheets of paper for reference by the end user. Given the practical and convenient use of these magnets, they are often kept and used for a long period of time, benefiting the advertiser with a long-lasting message and end-user with a decorative, item fulfilling a practical need.
One of the goals of an advertiser is to minimize the cost to have these magnets made, printed and delivered to the end-user. To minimize the cost of delivery, direct mail has been a desired choice, with automated “machinable” mail which can be scanned with automatic bar code reading equipment being the lowest cost. In addition, avoiding multiple steps in production, or complex or manual fabrication keeps costs lower. The simplest mail piece configuration, a postcard avoids the labour and material costs to fold, stuff, and seal and address envelopes and may qualify for lower mass mailing rates.
Another goal is to maximize the probability of the end user reading, and being motivated to keep the magnetic advertising piece, in that way increasing the probability of a purchase or use of the advertising or message, and a higher return on the advertising investment. Increasingly this involves being able to personalize the message to make it relevant to the end-user. With digital printing, unlike offset process or silk screening, it is feasible to have each mail piece unique in its content and images. Databases with information on demographics, past purchasing habits, household income, or such details as presence/absence of children or pets are widely utilized by advertisers. They are incorporated into variable data software in the digital printing process. In addition advertisers can direct end-users to personalized website addresses to enter contests or purchase services.
To obtain problem-free personalization it is advantageous not to have multiple pieces to assemble and in the case of magnets, to avoid trying to sort the die cut magnet pieces to match up the names with an envelope or insert.
With the above factors and the significant weight of the magnet, and the postal sorting problems of the inherent coercive force it has been difficult to achieve low cost mailings with magnets that were effective advertising mediums.
One example of an attempt to overcome these issues is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,282, issued Oct. 17, 1995 to Crane Productions Inc. Here a magnetic sheet is bonded to one end of a postcard, which is perforated to allow the magnetic portion to be removed. The limitation with the teaching of this example of prior art is that it leaves a magnet force facing outward, potentially jamming sortation equipment, the rough perforated edge to the magnet, the dual thickness affecting stacking of the finished product, and the loss of advertising space taken up by the face of the plain brown magnetic sheet.
An improvement on this prior art by the same inventor, Martin, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,307, issued Oct. 14, 1997 to Crane Productions Inc., provides for a tape to be applied to the back of the postcard along the edge of the magnet sheet. This “ramp” is claimed to reduce mailing problems by making the stacking of the cards easier by reducing the sharp “bump” at the edge of the magnetic sheet adhered to the postcard which made the machine stacking of the postcard problematic.
In another patent by Martin, U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,278, issued Feb. 15, 2000 to Crane Productions, Inc. a mailable envelope containing coupons is described. In this prior art a cardstock envelope is constructed with a magnetic sheet on the front, said sheet having a printed face containing postal indicia and address information. In this envelope, coupons are placed with the magnetic sheet holding it to the metal surface. The limitation of this prior art is the cost of assembling a complex multiple part piece and the mailing weight involved.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,153,280, issued Nov. 28, 2000 to Magnet, LLC, discloses the use of a magnetic strip applied to the back of a postcard, which is internally perforated to allow a portion of the magnetic backed portion to be removed. This has the continuing problem of not being automated mail compatible, and has the same issue as the aforesaid prior art with the unattractive brown magnetic face taking up a significant portion of one side of the card.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,953, issued Jan. 17, 2006 to Ward/Kraft Inc., describes a one-side only printed magnetic sheet consisting of a printable paper surface, bonded to a pre-magnetized magnetic sheet layer which is bonded with a frangible adhesive across its complete surface to a non-printed release layer. This sheet is printed with souvenir photos or other remembrances on the removable portions. The resultant sheet after the detachable elements have been removed, retains adhesive residue resulting from the frangible coating, which may be sticky.
To seek another method, U.S. Pat. No. 7,063,258, issued Jun. 20, 2006 to Dan Karolewicz, provides for a small annular magnetic shape glued to the back of a card to provide it with the ability to hold itself to a metal surface. This non-planar combination is placed in an envelope for bulk mailing. This prior art has the limitation of rendering the card non-planar like the two earlier instances noted above, and requiring an envelope for mailing.
In common commercial use today, magnetic postcard mailers are marketed with a conventional cardstock postcard on which a printed magnetic shape has been placed and then held in place with an overlying clear laminate film. The magnet is released by using a sharp point or by bursting through a perforated line in the film around the magnet. Due to the loose nature of the printed magnets being dropped onto the cardstock, the magnet generally must be a generic non-personalized one. This method limits the personalization possible, and requires multiple processes to manufacture cards and magnets separately and then bond the two together.
Also, in commercial use by advertisers, is the practice of creating a generic or personalized magnet in the shape of a credit card and then placing this with a removable adhesive securing it onto a folded letter, or card or pamphlet, which is then placed into an addressed window or plain envelope. This magnetic shape may be constructed of a thin magnetic paper laminate to minimize weight. However this still entails the costly issue of being able to match separately produced magnets with a personalized ad or letter and the fact that the removable advertisement piece, the magnet, is hidden inside an envelope, reducing the odds of its use as a refrigerator magnet.
The term “advertisers” as used in this specification takes its usual commercial meaning, but its meaning is not limited to private enterprises seeking to encourage business such as retailers, restaurants, real estate companies, manufacturers or distributors, as examples. The term may also apply to any level of government or other public sector or non-profit organizations, such as social services organizations, city governments, schools, institutions, sports teams, charitable foundations, cultural or religious organization as examples.
Given the limitations of the prior art, there still remains a need for an innovative and effective way of creating multipurpose magnetic cards. The present invention overcomes these limitations of the prior art by:                a) providing a card with durable, sturdy surfaces that can be easily stored, handled, shipped or mailed without compromising card security        b) Providing a solid completely opaque layer to cover the hidden message, eliminating the need to provide extra layers to create secure opacity        c) offering a quick, clean, debris-free method of revealing the prize or message within, without need for coins, fingernail scratching or a solid surface to rest it on.        d) providing a souvenir decorative magnet of practical end use that may be displayed long-term providing benefits to both the advertiser and end-user.        e) Compatible with modern digital printing methods enabling personalization of the advertising and hidden prize or message.        f) when used as a mail postcard having low enough magnetic field on its surfaces such that it can be processed by automated sorting equipment securing the lowest postal rates.        g) being of a single, uniform and thin enough thickness to enable sorting and stacking without jamming up in machine fed mailing equipment when used as a postcard.        h) designing so that the magnetic forces can be adjusted in the magnetic sheet so that a higher force may be used if the card is for handing out and a lower one if the card is processed by a postal service with stringent specifications or more magnet sensitive processing equipment; and        i) designing so that the magnetization forces can be imparted in unique pattern providing a significant precaution against counterfeiting or tampering        j) Produced with die cut patterns and adhesive placement methods to produce tamper-evident cards.        
A magnetic card product with most or all of these advancements would offer significant advantages and overcome the limitations of the prior art as described above.